ESA’s BepiColombo Mercury mission thrives on ambition and co-operation

The European Space Agency unveils its ambitious a1.3bn Bepi Colombo mission to inner planet Mercury

I raised a sceptical eyebrow when Alvaro Gimenez, ESA director of science, said that BepiColombo mission to Mercury is the most complicated science mission ever performed by the agency.

What could be more difficult than ESA's Rosetta and Philae mission, I thought, which navigated around a comet and sent a lander to the icy surface. An hour later after listening to the science and especially the engineering talks, I was convinced.